Justine Sacco’s tweet and the cyber mob: Editorial

Last Friday a public relations flack for Barry Diller’s IAC, owner of some of the country’s best-known websites, made a racist comment on Twitter, creating an uproar that became her own PR crisis and eventually got her fired. A misguided tweet created a cyber mob.

“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” tweeted Justine Sacco, a public relations executive at IAC, with properties that include Vimeo, OkCupid, Dictionary.com and About.com.

In the Twitter-sphere, where the cleverest tweet wins and everyone is trying to be heard, the tweet went global. At least one reporter who knew her suggested Sacco was naively testing the boundaries of Twitter.

Maybe. Nobody knows what was going through the native South African’s head but the tweet was plainly offensive. It’s the kind of comment that might have been employed in a racy comedy routine or even at a dinner party. Instead it was broadcast out to millions.

A communications professional like Sacco should have known better.

Sacco jumped on her London flight to South Africa after sending out the tweet and then the Twitter world went afire, creating a trend #HasJustineSaccolandedyet. She couldn’t respond. She couldn’t apologize. She was on a plane.

Diller’s company called the tweet “an outrageous, offensive comment.” Justinesacco.com was purchased by Aid for Africa, directing people to donate. Gogo, an inflight service provider tweeted: “Next time you plan to tweet something stupid before you take off, make sure you are getting on a @Gogo flight! CC: @JustineSacco”

Then Gogo issued an apology. Even Donald Trump weighed in. “Justine, what the hell are you doing, are you crazy? Not nice or fair! I will support @AidforAfrica. Justine is FIRED!”

When Sacco finally landed she deleted the tweet, her account and later issued an apology.

“Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet. There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.”

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But by the time the apology surfaced, Sacco’s dismissive words had been clobbered by tens of thousands of snap judgments coming in by the millisecond on Twitter and she was rightfully fired. Online there is no limit to the audience or to the life of our words. The nuances of our real lives, our selves aren’t communicated in tweets or in shiny Instagram pictures, but they sure can be destroyed that way.